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June 24, 2013

First Week in MKE

One week. I’ve lived in Milwaukee for one full week. It feels very surreal to even think about that. It’s been the longest and the quickest week I can remember.

The actual move was pretty easy. We had a simple drive over, and the cat even slept the entire time. Surprisingly, we unpacked the U-haul fairly quickly with just the two of us. We even missed the impending thunderstorm by unloading our last box about two minutes before the torrential downpour hit.

Emotionally though, the first three days were pretty rough. I was a mess of anxiousness and stress. I barely slept, and a sense of homesickness that I haven’t felt in years seemed to set in. Nothing seemed familiar and I couldn’t help feeling like I was having some weird out of body experience.

My husband was amazing. He was calm, listened and took me on a long walk every night. So were the numerous friends and family who sent texts, emails and phone calls my way, during those first few days. I have had a great support system and I can’t begin to express my gratitude for that.

Having done this type of move once before, I knew the best thing I could do for myself was to get out and explore. So, true to form, I put myself to work researching what Milwaukee had to offer. The last few days have been much better. We’ve been busy discovering our new city and all of its wonderful amenities. Milwaukee may not feel like home yet, but it sure seems like a pretty awesome city.

Although I am still settling in amongst unopened boxes, still trying to figure out where we’re going to hang things and what pieces of furniture we need to buy, I am starting to feel more and more like this adventure is going to be okay. Because, as I’ve learned most really great adventures are rarely easy, and if they are, they probably aren’t worth it.

^^^Have I mentioned how much I love swings? They are on my top-ten list of favorite things in the world, next to sparklers, and getting my hair done. Anyway, we found this little playground near our home and they have the most wonderful swings. The other night when I was sure feeling down, my husband insisted that we go take a ride on the swing to try and change my mood. What a smart guy, because sure enough, I felt a thousand better after just a few minutes on that swing.^^^

^^^It was a beautiful weekend and since we live close to the water now, it only seemed fitting to end the weekend with a day at the beach.^^^

2 comments:

Your photos (and writing, natch) do a pretty good job of making Milwaukee look like an awesome city. I'm definitely a subscriber to the "bloom where you're planted" philosophy, and I think that's what you do, Chels. You bloom wherever you go. And you'll do that in your new city, I just know it!